Whats Difference between Windows 8 and Windows 7 ?

In this article, I tried to compare the features of Windows 7 operating system with Windows 8 operating system. Though Windows 8 operating system is not yet been released, some rumors are spreading across the features of Windows 8 operating system in the internet. The features which I mentioned in the Windows 8 are of speculations. Some of the features may come with the upcoming Windows 8 operating system, some may not.

When we try to compare the Windows 7 operating system with Windows 8, first of all we have to know the features of Windows 7 and Windows 8. Here are some features of Windows 7 and Windows 8 operating system.

Windows 7 features

Windows 7 includes a number of new features when compared to Vista. Some of them are touch and handwriting recognition, support for virtual hard disks, improved performance on multi-core processors, improved boot performance, kernel improvements.

Windows 7 adds support for system using multiple heterogeneous graphics cards from different vendors, a new version of Windows Media Center, a Gadget for Windows Media Center, improved media features, the XPS Essentials pack and Windows Power Shell included.

The taskbar has seen the biggest visual change, where the quick launch toolbar has been replaced with the ability to pin applications to the task bar. Buttons for pinned applications are integrated with the task buttons. These buttons also enable the Jump Lists feature to allow easy access to common tasks. Not only these, there are several other major changes have done to the Windows 7 operating system.

Lots of new features are included in the Windows 7 operating system when compared to Windows Vista. Due to inclusion of this software’s and additional features, Windows 7 is the highest selling operating system in the history of Microsoft.

The below are the features of the upcoming Windows 8 operating system. Since Microsoft not yet officially declared, these features may or may not include in the upcoming Windows 8 operating system.

Windows 8 Features

1)Windows 8 includes a new “Hybrid Boot” option that uses “advanced hibernation functionality” on shutdown to allow faster startup times. Another new feature is, the ability to create a Portable Workspace, an installation of Windows 8 on a USB storage device.

2)Based on the Milestone 1 (build 7850, with a build date of September 22, 2010) which was leaked in the internet to P2P/torrent sharing networks, on Milestone 1 includes a ribbon interface for Windows Explorer, a PDF reader called Modern Reader, an updated task manager called Modern Task Manager and native ISO mounting

3)Based on the Milestone 3 (build, build 7971), which was released on March 29, 2011. The Windows 7 Basic theme has been replaced with a new theme, where the boxes that encase the “close, maximize and minimize” buttons have been removed, leaving just the signs. It also has a Welcome screen, new packaged application model called AppX that is based on Silverlight. Windows Store to review and buy applications online, and a setting to automatically adjust window color to fit the wallpaper. It also includes a stripped down “Immersive” version of Internet Explorer, similar to the mobile version of Internet Explorer, but using the desktop Trident rendering engine.

4)Windows 8 will have built in Internet Explorer 10 which has more advance features, and it take advantage of hardware-acceleration for faster browsing and better performance

5)Another Best thing with Windows 8 is, it is optimized for touch screen devices, but will equally support keyword/mouse based desktops,net books , notebooks etc., According to Microsoft, you choose the device, Windows 8 is going to run on it.

6)Windows 8 is going to use a new File system called “Protogon”. Since the NTFS file system was introduced with Windows NT, Windows 8 may perhaps be the OS that Microsoft will use to debut a next generation file system called Protogon. In the new file system we are going to get a detailed information about any device which is connected to the system.
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7)Windows 8 will be having a updated windows 8 installer, which can cleanup the disk. It will be helpful while installing the OS to clean the disk. With this feature, we can check whether there is any data on the Hard drive where the os is going to install.

8)Windows 8 will have ISO verifier, which will verify the ISO image and says whether it is a legitimate image or not.

11)Windows 8 has support for the Windows App store.(you can download your apps)

12)Destroy a Virus and keep your data with a “reset”

13)Decrease in the boot time, the boot time is decreased from 40sec to 27sec in Vista. Microsoft wants to cut this boot time to half in Windows 8 operating system.

14)Windows 8 is going to use Facial Recognition for Login.

15)Better and more intuitive system views.

Compare Windows 7 with Windows 8

Now we try to compare Windows 7 operating system with Windows 8 operating system.

Surely, we can say in case of Boot time, there will be significant changes in the upcoming Windows 8 operating system compared to Windows 7. Better GUI will be there in Windows 8. New features like ISO image verifier, which verifies iso image is genuine or not. Login page of Windows 7 OS looks better, few changes may happen for login page of Windows 8. Facial recognition will be added to the login page, so that no need to type your password again and again when your computer is locked,just sit in front of your webcam, your computer will be unlocked.

When we try to compare Security of Windows 7, it is highly improved from Vista. In the upcoming Windows 8, we can surely say more security will be there. A reset function will be included, so that when your system is affected with virus, just start the reset function, virus will be removed and your system will be secure. Multiple desktops will be a new feature which is going to be included in Windows 8 OS which is not in the Windows 7.

Finally, we can say when we compare to Windows 7 operating system with Windows 8, little changes will be there in the Graphics section(which include themes, wallpapers, gadgets, login page etc.,). Major changes will be there in Security and Boot up time sections.

The good thing is, there will be no additional hardware required for Windows 8. Same hardware of Windows 7 will be sufficient. So we can expect, Windows 8 will be better than Windows 7 operating system.